SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — On the day after the Big East lost its fifth member in 18 months with Rutgers bolting for the Big Ten and with more defections likely on the horizon, the man who helped make Big East basketball the force that it is offered his view of the college landscape.

“I’m going to let those people play their games,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said Wednesday night after his sixth-ranked Orange beat Princeton 73-53. “I think they’ll be doing that for the next 20 years. If they could figure it out and get it done in the next year, we wouldn’t have to think about it.

“Maybe they should just have a draft, each conference should just draft teams … except then they’d have to make a decision and they wouldn’t be able to figure it out. Eventually, they’ll get this thing figured out. They’ll get all the teams moved and then in a year or two someone will say `We need to take somebody,’ … But I’ll be long gone by then.”

Syracuse and Pittsburgh will leave the Big East after this season to join the Atlantic Coast Conference and West Virginia already has bolted for the Big 12. Either Louisville or Connecticut is expected to join the defectors going forward.

Although Syracuse has indicated it will continue to try to keep archrival Georgetown on the schedule, the changing college landscape will have an effect on rivalries. None was more intense than Georgetown-Syracuse in the 1980s.

“Rivalries don’t matter to anyone anymore,” Boeheim said. “If you ask someone at West Virginia if they like going to Texas Tech or Texas A&M and all those places, ask their fans whether they really like that. Maybe they do. I don’t know. I don’t get it. It’s just the way it’s going. There’s nothing you can do about it.

“Like I said, if these guys [the conference commissioners] were running the United States in colonial times, Brazil and Argentina would be states because they have something we need. It’s a great country.”

Boeheim, in his 37th year at his alma mater, turned 68 last week and is eight wins shy of becoming the third Division I men’s coach to reach 900, behind only Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Knight.

The National Football League Foundation has approved a $45 million dollar grant to USA Football to support the growth of youth football, it was announced today. The grant will provide funding for USA Football over the next five years. check jet app for further details

twin, you answered your own question. Eli is a vet with a track record and two Super Bowl rings...and won the MVP is both games to boot. Geno is a rookie and until rookies accomplish something and have their own track record to fall back on, they are open to criticism. That's life as an NFL QB...

Dude, you answered your own question. Eli is a vet with a track record of two Super Bowl rings and won the MVP is both games to boot. Geno is a rookie and until rookies accomplish something and have their own track record to fall back on, they are open to criticism. That said, I personally LIKE Geno...

@twin Nothing to get. You must be unaware that the Giants are the classiest, best run, incredible organization in sports. Nothing they do should be questioned. When Eli throws int's he's an aggressive qb and a victim of unfortunate circumstances. Geno just stinks and so do the Jets.

Eli did have a couple of stellar runs with a little bit a luck thrown in. Then again so did Flacco. It will be fascinating to see how they handle Eli's next contract.

@Bent@twin Agreed. He wasn't very good last year, but the dude was a 7th round pick, let's give him a chance. He has pretty good hands, 11 catches on 16 targets. But obviously he needs to improve as a blocker.

@twin@Bytor Nah, first part had full on sarcasm font. I think he'll make a big jump this year especially if they continue to stock up on weapons. I really think Geno's got it between the ears as well as his physical gifts that match up well with the WCO.

I'm liking some combinations such as:

Decker/Kerley/Lee, Niklas, Ivory/MJD?

Decker/Kerley/DJax, Niklas, Ivory/MJD?

If we nudge into the top half of the league in offensive production, we're playoff bound.

@a57se@Bent That's always hard to quantify, but I don't think it was that much. A lot of his interceptions were of the "heave downfield to nobody" variety where the Blame Schotty crew didn't have a leg to stand on when they tried to blame it on the playcalling.

They still had Coles back then, so the receiving corps wasn't as bad as at the start of 2009. Coles, Cotchery, Keller, Baker, Stuckey, BSmith and Leon out of the backfield. Certainly not worse than 2009 (Stuck and Smith were 3 and 4 instead of 2 and 3 as they had lost Coles and Baker). Of course things then started to improve when they replaced Stuck with Bray.

Look at each game in isolation. They beat some really bad teams in scrappy games. The 6TD game against the Cards without which his stats are awful was won because of the DEFENSE with five second quarter turnovers.

They lost to the Raiders and Matt Cassel at home in his first career start and then lost four of their last five down the stretch. They were 24-6 up to the Pats thanks to a kickoff return and then threw the lead away by letting Matt Cassel rack up 468 yards on them, getting lucky that they got the ball first in OT.

Other than the Titans win the week after that Pats win (a team which, it turned out, was not the force everyone had thought it was due to their record to that point), the team hardly ever put a complete performance together.

You may remember it like Favre was playing well on a week to week basis, but he really wasn't any better than Pennington had been in 2006 and arguably was worse.

He was hurt much earlier in the season (week six, I believe) and played pretty poorly from that point on. They won in spite of him for the most part.

I disagree. That defense had a major weakness which was exposed time and time again by several bad teams that almost beat us (and then did start beating us down the stretch). They couldn't cover intermediately because guys like Barton, Bowens and Elam were overmatched. That issue wasn't fixed until the Jets got Leonhard and Scott the following year.

It has been 45 years since the last Jets super bowl so a Jets super bowl earns a QB at least 45 years....

but Sanchez kept some truly great teams from having home field advantage in the playoffs and he lost in the playoffs,....twice.....even Rex Grossman and Trent Dilfer were good enough to get to the super bowl with a great defense and running game....

@funkymonk@twin I had a thought the other day. What if the Jets managed to reach or maybe win a Super Bowl in either of their first two years with Sanchez...then assume 2011-2013 panned out exactly the same - late season collapse, buttfumble, benched for McElroy, injured for the year etc.

Would the Jets still have moved on from Sanchez this offseason or would the fact he's taken them that step further (which easily could have happened without him needing to play any better with a play here and a play there going in their favor) have bought him some more time?

About Adam Zagoria

Adam is a Basketball Insider for NBA.com and SNY.tv, where he covers basketball at all levels.

He is the author of two books, including "She's Got Handle," called "The 'Hoop Dreams' of the 21st Century" by The New York Times. His second book, "ULTIMATE: The First Four Decades," documents the colorful history of Ultimate Frisbee and was profiled in Sports Illustrated.

An award-winning journalist, his articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated, SLAM, Basketball Times and newspapers nationwide.

A veteran Ultimate player, Adam has competed in numerous World & National Championships, and his teams won the Westchester Summer League titles in 2011 & 2013.

He has also attended more Allman Brothers Band, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Rolling Stones shows than he cares to remember.

Adam lives in Manhattan with his wife, Jennifer, and their children, Grace and James.